Planning for growth

Everyone knows the population of Columbia and environs is growing steadily, now exceeding an estimate of 100,000 in the city itself and incrementally up just as much in nearby surrounds.

A growing population brings inevitable expansion of major traffic ways, schools and commercial and residential building sure to follow. With this prospect, it makes sense for local governments to plan ahead.

This is a simple enough proposition. Why donít local officials have sense to do it all along? Why are predictably high-use places like Scott Boulevard and North Stadium Road suddenly overcrowded? Why let schools get too full? Why didnít responsible officials look ahead and take action? Any one of us could have predicted the coming crunches.

Well, itís not that easy. It always comes down to money.

Take the Scott Boulevard situation. Not only did development of this roadway require joint decision-making by both city and county ó the right of way is under joint jurisdiction ó but if you had been a member of either governing body 15 years ago, even though you could predict traffic growth, spending millions of dollars to buy right of way would have brought the wrath of taxpayers accusing you of wasting scarce cash when money is needed for other current projects.

If as a member of the Columbia City Council you wisely proposed early annexation of peripheral areas to more efficiently plan for growth, you would have met inevitable pushback from resistant interests, making unified land use control impossible.

Thus, it is welcome news to learn a couple of rather far-seeing planning projects are moving along with city and county agreement. One is the extension of Gans Road from Highway 63 South to Providence Road. The other is the so-called northeast joint plan for the area in the general vicinity of the new high school site around St. Charles Road and Interstate 70.

Both of these projects involve land mostly in unincorporated Boone County, but both portend urban-type development that should and will occur under city auspices. Annexation is inevitable and proper, but at this early stage county officials find it necessary to explain that preliminary planning for the northeast area is ďnot an annexation plan.Ē

Well, fine. For now the important thing is to do the necessary basic planning.

Both plans involve a central corridor sure to stimulate nearby development. Gans will be a roadway parallel to the south of Route AC (Nifong Boulevard), providing better access to Discovery Ridge on the east and running to busy Providence Road on the west. Not all owners along this route will initially be in favor of annexation, but the advantages of annexation will encourage the move. First the roadway must become a pending reality for development pressure to emerge. Then the dominoes will fall.

Ditto to the northeast.

These two projects and others of similar scope sure to follow offer opportunities for more comprehensive planning. Members of the city council, the county commission and their respective planning and zoning commissions will do well to collaborate closely.

HJW III

Thereís one sure way to correct your mistakes: Write your own biography.